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Friday, December 22, 2017

Writing that Brings the Pages to Life by C. Kevin Thompson

C. Kevin Thompson

Don’t you wish you could write like this?

“They
left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of the town, where Scrooge
had never penetrated before, although he recognised its situation, and its bad
repute. The ways were foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the
people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. Alleys and archways, like so many
cesspools, disgorged their offences of smell, and dirt, and life, upon the
straggling streets; and the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth, and
misery.

Far in
this den of infamous resort, there was a low-browed, beetling shop, below a
pent-house roof, where iron, old rags, bottles, bones, and greasy offal, were
bought. Upon the floor within, were piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails,
chains, hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse iron of all kinds. Secrets
that few would like to scrutinise were bred and hidden in mountains of unseemly
rags, masses of corrupted fat, and sepulchres of bones. Sitting in among the
wares he dealt in, by a charcoal stove, made of old bricks, was a grey-haired rascal,
nearly seventy years of age; who had screened himself from the cold air
without, by a frousy curtaining of miscellaneous tatters, hung upon a line; and
smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement.”

Of course, this passage comes from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Stave Four, if you hadn’t
picked up on that already. The “They” in the first line is Ebenezer Scrooge and
the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.

When you read the first paragraph, did you feel like you
needed to take a shower? Isn’t the description of the alleys and archways
magnificently vulgar? Is “disgorged” a strong and proper verb for that stretch
of sentences, or what? And when you contemplate how life really was for some
many people in those cities—where no indoor plumbing existed—you can visualize
the health concerns immediately, adding to the disgusting setting.

Which is exactly the “feel” Dickens was striving to achieve.

Or take the next paragraph, for example. Did you know pawn
shops existed in 1843 London? Have they changed much since then? Can you
picture the “grey-haired rascal” sitting amongst the filth? Can you feel the
grime around him? Can you smell his pipe amongst the odor of greasy offal? Do
you even know what “offal” is? I had to look it up1 the first time I read this
book. Wow! Can one word sure add to the visceral feelings of a scene (no pun
intended)!

So, we ask ourselves: Can my writing look and smell and feel
like this? Why not? It may mean our vocabulary will need a facelift. Our prose
may need sharpening. Our fingers at the keyboard may need liniment. Why, you
ask? Because Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol
in a mere six weeks, and many of the words used are not in the typical
American’s verbal repertoire. Pretty amazing, if you ask me. It takes great
skill to write such a monumental book in so little time and have it only be a
novella. You authors know what I’m talking about. It’s easy to get wordy, but
it is the economy of words coupled with the message of redemption that makes
this work stand out.

So, feeling overwhelmed? Challenged to the point of stress?
Think you’ll never arrive at the lofty bar Dickens has raised? I’m sure his
reply would be something like this: “Bah! Humbug! Grab your pen and compose the
words that garner the most power. Pen a tome with descriptive language that
transports the reader to another world, another dimension, another time,
another land, another’s shoes. The kind that tickles the nose, dances in the
ear, turns the stomach, and floods the eyes. Lead them down the alleys and
archways they’d never tread on their own. Be the Grim Reaper Ghost who points
them in the direction of doom so they may find their own reclamation. For if
you only take them down soft, padded walkways or allow them to ride in cushy
Hansom cabs, they will never see how lavish a life of love, modeled after the
example of our Savior, truly is.”

Supervisory
Special Agent Blake Meyer is at an impasse. Bound and beaten in a dilapidated
warehouse halfway around the world, Blake finds himself listening to an
unbelievable story. Right and wrong warp into a despicable clash of ideologies.
Life quickly becomes neither black nor white. Nor is it red, white, and blue
any longer.

Every
second brings the contagion's release closer, promising to drag the United
States into the Dark Ages. Tens of millions could be dead within months.

Every
moment adds miles and hours to the expanding gulf between him and his family.
What is he to believe? Who is he to trust?

C. KEVIN THOMPSON
is a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a kid at heart. Often referred to as
“crazy” by his grandchildren, it’s only because he is. He’s a writer. Need he
say more?

The first three books of his Blake Meyer Thriller series are
out! Book 1, 30 Days Hath Revenge and
Book 2, Triple Time, are available!
Book 3, The Tide of Times, just
released in October! All three are on sale through New Year’s Eve! Also, the
second edition of his award-winning debut novel, The Serpent’s Grasp, is now available!

Kevin is a huge fan of the TV series 24, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, and Criminal Minds, loves anything to do with Star Trek, and is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, too. It’s quite
elementary, actually.

2 comments:

Kevin, you picked a passage from one of my all time favorite stories. The scene is incredible. Do most of us have that type of vocabulary these days? You've definitely challenged us to try and broaden our use of the English language.

I have a novella due this spring, I'll have to see what I can do. Try and stretch my vocabulary.